In her song "Wings" the Australian singer-songwriter Iluka builds a bridge from the education and the social image of women today back to the figure of Mary Magdalene from the Bible.
In doing so, she joins a number of numerous women who are just discovering Mary Magdalene for herself. A woman whose story was in fact characterized above all by the male gaze and offers fabric for numerous pictures.
Anyone who watches Bible films or walks along paintings of past centuries will be confronted with a picture in Mary Magdalene: that of the repentant sinner, the prostitutes. The Italian artist Titian painted them in 1533 in such a way that their long open hair barely covers their breasts.
Antonio da Correggio had them half down in 1518, half lascively looking up to Jesus. Also in the picture of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes from 1869 it is not entirely clear: is she now apointing or flirting with the viewer?
On the other hand, the influencer Jet'aime Cherée sees her as a "rebel" and Eliza Monta is completely taken when she stands in the south of France in front of the alleged bones of Mary Magdalene. The whore has become an identification figure.
Mary Magdalene is one of the most influential figures of the Bible. The synoptic Gospels name them as one of those who more or less follow Jesus from the beginning: "Some women also watched from afar, including Mary from Magdala, Mary, the mother of James the Little and Joses, and Salome; they had already succeeded Jesus in Galilee and had served him.
There were many other women who had gone up to Jerusalem with him.” (Mk 15,40f.) It is part of the "disciple", a group that is distinguishable from that of the "Twelve". "Disciples" were women and men alike, the "twelve" were exclusively men according to what we know today.
When names of disciples are mentioned and then not only men's, but also women's names are included, the name of Mary Magdalene is usually at the forefront. So she was one of the most important figures in Jesus' follow-up. Whether or not women and men alike have perceived the succession in this group, we do not know today.
The Gospels are not documents of time, but were written with a considerable time interval – by people who were not personally present at the events they wrote about. Therefore, they are more likely to document the time of their origin. This is also reflected in the texts: for example, because the names of women are often concealed enough from the male authors. Thus, the women are mentioned in the quotation in Mark (see above) and are indicated as a self-evident part of the Jesus movement – but only in the description of the death of Jesus. The texts therefore treat women in general and probably also Maria Magdalena in particular derogatory.
Nevertheless, the presentation and mention of Mary Magdalene shows two abnormalities: on the one hand, she is the decisive proclaimer of the resurrection of Jesus. She is the first to know about it with John (John 20:11-18) and will notify the men. Therefore, in 2016 it was liturgically ejudged by the Vatican as the "Apostleine of the Apostles" to the Apostles.
On the other hand, she is one of the few women in the Bible who are not defined by a man. For Mary Magdalene stands for Mary from Magdala, the still existing small town of Migdal on the Sea of Galilee. This suggests that she was not married and had no children and that her kinship for the Jesus movement was not relevant. Mary is defined by herself – a rarity in the Bible.
But their reception does not stop. Because precisely because numerous other women are not named, nameless figures became figures from the 6. Century identified with Mary Magdalene. For example, an unnamed penitent who washes Jesus’ feet and anoints (Lk 7:36ff.). Pope Gregory I is the first to identify her with the sinner in the late sixth century.
Sexualized reception
In time, the male-influenced reception of Mary Magdalene becomes more and more sexualized. For what sins could the penitent have committed, of whom she is so ashamed that she washes Jesus’ feet? You put her in the shoes of having sold her body or generally lived "immorally". The first witness of the resurrection and the defining figure of the Jesus movement becomes a wicked whore.
This ensures a sustainable devaluation. Because just as some understand the "Aposteline of the Apostles" as an appreciation, the theologian Judith Hartenstein sees it differently to the "National Geographic": "This is supposed to be an honorary title, but is more of a discriminatory term, because Mary Magdalena is only allowed to proclaim once on Easter Sunday and only for the men's group," she says. "Then their task is done and the men take over."
There are reasons to call her a “real” apostle. The apostle Paul never met Jesus personally. He derived his vocation to the apostle from an appearance of Jesus (Acts 9:3ff.). But Mary Magdalene also had such a phenomenon at the tomb (see above) – but this possibility of interpretation does not play a major role in the aftermath.
Having a wicked vamp as a biblical figure has a decisive advantage for the artists through the centuries: they can represent an erotic, lascivious, attractive woman without exposing themselves to the suspicion of immorality, after all, they only paint a Bible scene. Thus the apostle of the apostles struggles through art history. This is particularly powerful in the time of the Counter-Reformation, i.e. the Catholic reaction to the Reformation: here the barren Protestants, since the sensual Catholics.
One of the few other important women in the New Testament, carrying the Mother Jesus and also the then very common name Mary (the Latin version of the Hebrew name Mirjam), is already enclosed by her role as merely a receiving and suffering mother. So the two Marias are not least a symptom of a male-influenced view of the world: women are either mothers or whores.
Maria Magdalena now experiences a reprint through the feminist glasses. More and more women discover it as an identification figure and try to strip away the centuries of the male gaze.
Maria stands next to Phoebe and Junia, who have been rediscovered in recent years. The oldest writings help: For in some apocryphal scriptures Mary Magdalene is the favorite disciple of Jesus and therefore comes into dispute with Peter, who is portrayed as her male opponent.
In the south of France there is a legend that depicts her as a missionary, saint and hermit. Two churches in France, one in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in Provence and one in Vézelay in Burgundy, claim to own their bones. More recently, she appears in the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" or in the bestseller "Sakrileg" by Dan Brown as a partner of Jesus.
In addition, contemporary influencers today feature the images of Mary Magdalene as a rebel or priestess.
The official church has also moved a little: the popes John Paul II and Francis have explicitly dissolved the connection of Mary Magdalene with the sinner, since 2016 she has been under the title "Aposteline of the Apostles" with a feast in the liturgical calendar on 22. July adored.
The story of Mary Magdalene as a projection surface is certainly not over.
She has inspired too many pictures – from the whore to the nun.